According to Rodrigo Mendirichaga Magana, MD, FACC, FSCAI, interventional cardiologist, director of the Anticoagulation Clinic, and director of cardiac rehabilitation at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, a Mass General Brigham community hospital, dyslipidemia is the broader term doctors use to describe any abnormality in the lipids, or fats, circulating in the blood.
Magana was not involved in the drafting of the updated guidelines.
“It includes high levels of LDL (the ‘bad’ cholesterol that builds up in artery walls), low levels of HDL (the ‘good’ cholesterol that helps clear that buildup), and elevated triglycerides, which are another type of fat in the blood,” he explained to MNT.
“Why does it matter? Because when these lipids are out of balance, they gradually deposit in the walls of your arteries, forming plaque,” he told us.
“Over time, that plaque narrows the arteries and can rupture, triggering a heart attack or stroke,” he continued. “The problem is that dyslipidemia is largely silent and most people have no symptoms whatsoever until something serious happens.“
“That’s exactly why these guidelines are so important: they help us find and address the problem long before it becomes a crisis,” said Magana.